Making (and Using) a Book Vise & Cutting Plough

In the course of making a book, there’s one tool you use many times throughout the process, and that is a book vise. It’s what you use to hold the paper properly while marking, cutting, rounding the spine, gluing, separating the cords and more. Now while the vise is a great tool all on its own, it also works in conjunction with another tool: the cutting plough. If you turn the vise around, there’s a groove which the plough fits into, and now you can use this tool to trim the sides of the paper nice and crisp.

Now I have just made a detailed building plan that includes how to build the vise AND how to build the accompanying cutting plough. If you’re someone who’s been thinking about building these tools for yourself, then I think this plan will be very useful as it includes cutlists, step by step instructions and tips and things to think about.

This project is a part of our bookbinding tool series which also includes the book press and the sewing frame. All of these tools feature a classic design and wooden screws wherever applicable.

I think the vise is one of those tools which is pretty straightforward and obviously quite useful. The cutting plough is a less obvious tool. It features a blade, a wooden screw, two blocks of wood and two rods, and while running in the groove in the vise, it does such a great job of cutting the paper into crisp, beautiful sides. If you’re someone who happen to have a big guillotine in your shop, you might not need it, but for the rest of us, it’s a big step up from using a razor blade to cut the paper.

Make sure to check out the video which is all about these tools: how they’re constructed and how you use them. And of course, if you’re serious about building your own, then you might want to check out the plan.